4A-GE
The 4A-GE is a 1600cc straight 4 engine, produced
by Toyota between 1983 and 1998.
After it's introduction in May 1983, this engine gained quite a bit of
fame with Toyota and tuning enthusiasts. Main reasons for it's
popularity were it's reliability and good performance in it's class. And
it proved to be a very nice tuning object where, although the basic
design was very good, a lot could still be gained and the engine got a
lot of aftermarket support from renowned tuning brands.
The basic design of the engine was simple, light and compact and it even
saw action in several race classes, proving the potential and quality of
this little sports engine.
It was mostly installed in Toyota's lighter sports cars like the Celica,
MR2 and Corolla GTi's and is thus well known with Toyota drivers all
around the world.
Even now, 30 years after it's introduction, and even though Toyota has
stopped making them decades ago, it is still popular with Toyota fans.
But an engine can't be in production for over 16
years without undergoing some changes to keep the engine up-to-date.
But because the engine has undergone some changes over the years, we can
also distinguish different generations of the same engine. But some of
the changes can't been seen on the outside or are very subtle, so it is
sometimes confusing which engine is which generation.
The official designations that were sometimes used for the engines like
4A-GEU of 4A-GELU only adds to the confusion. Mechanically they remain
the same engine, they are after all 4A-GE engines.
But these designations are used to indicate which market these engines
were destined for or how the engine was mounted in the car.
For instance, the 4A-GEU is the engine that was used for the Japanese
and European markets and the 4A-GEC was the engine for the
American/Californian market with its strict emission standards and the
4A-GELU is the engine that was mounted transversely in the cars. It had
a different designation because inlet-and-outlet manifolds were
different to the 4A-GE's that were mounted lengthwise into the car (like
in the AE86).
But as Toyota switched to FWD for all cars that used the 4A-GE after
1988, all 4A-GE engines from then on were in fact 4A-GELU's
But you will not find these designations anywhere in the car or on the
engine. So to keep things simple and because for the engine itself, it
doesn't make that much of a difference I will keep referring to these
engines as just 4A-GE.
I have experienced first hand how much information is on the world wide
web about the 4A-GE, and also how much of that information proved to be
wrong later on. As said, there is much confusion about the
specifications of the different generation of these engines.
I think I now have a pretty good idea on how these engines evolved and
would like to try and eliminate some of the confusion about the
different generations of the 4A-GE engines and the specifications.
1st generation 4A-GE engine
After the 4A-GE engine was developed in collaboration with Yamaha (who
designed the cylinder head) as the successor to Toyota's sporty 2T-G
engine, the engine was first introduced in the famous RWD Corolla AE86.
The engine was received very well and the 4A-GE went on to power the
first generation of the MR2 (AW11), the first Celica's and FWD Corolla's
(E80 series).
Because of different grades of petrol and environmental legislation in
different markets around the world, the exact specifications for the
very same engines can vary.
So the specifications listed below will be those of my European home
market.
Engine code: |
4A-GE |
Fuel: |
Petrol |
Power output: |
+/- 120 hp @ 7000 rpm. |
Torque: |
141 Nm @ 6000 rpm. |
Number of cylinders: |
4 |
Cylinder capacity: |
1587cc |
Bore x stroke: |
81,0 x 77,0 mm. |
Compression ratio: |
9,4:1 |
Number of valves: |
16 |
Camshaft layout: |
DOHC |
Camshaft drive: |
Belt driven |
Camshaft duration: |
240º intake-and-exhaust |
Valve lift: |
7,56 mm. intake-and-exhaust |
Valve angle |
-45º |
Diameter intake valves: |
29,5 mm. |
Diameter exhaust valves: |
25,5 mm. |
Combustion chamber flow : |
Cross-flow |
Cylinder head material: |
Aluminum alloy |
Cylinder block material: |
Cast iron |
Cylinder block type: |
3-rib |
Piston pin diameter: |
18 mm. |
Big-end diameter: |
40 mm. |
Throttle plate diameter : |
55 mm. |
Fuel system: |
EFI (L-jettronic) |
Injector capacity: |
182 cc/min. (1 Ohm, topfeed) |
Fuel pump pressure: |
75 psi. |
Fuel rail pressure: |
35 tot 38 psi. |
EFI sensor: |
AFM (Air Flow Meter) |
Ignition: |
Electronic (ESA/TCCS) |
Sparkplugs type: |
BCPR5EP11 |
Engine dry weight: |
Approximately 135 kg. |
Miscellaneous: |
Big-port cylinder head |
2nd Generation
4A-GE
Toyota has made some changes to the 4A-GE engine somewhere in 1986. Part
of the reason for these changes were to beef up the engine a little for
future modifications and even better reliability.
New cylinder blocks were cast with additional strengthening, which was
achieved by adding 4 extra ribs, bringing the grand total to 7 ribs in
the cylinder block.
The connecting rods were also beefed up, the piston pins were now 20mm
and the big ends were enlarged to 42mm to help cope with higher power
outputs.
Engine code: |
4A-GE |
Fuel: |
Petrol |
Power output: |
+/- 120 hp @ 7000 rpm. |
Torque: |
141 Nm @ 6000 rpm. |
Number of cylinders: |
4 |
Cylinder capacity: |
1587cc |
Bore x stroke: |
81,0 x 77,0 mm. |
Compression ratio: |
9,4:1 |
Number of valves: |
16 |
Camshaft layout: |
DOHC |
Camshaft drive: |
Belt driven |
Camshaft duration: |
240º intake-and-exhaust |
Valve lift: |
7,56 mm. intake-and-exhaust |
Valve angle: |
-45º |
Diameter intake valves: |
29,5 mm. |
Diameter exhaust valves: |
25,5 mm. |
Combustion chamber flow: |
Cross-flow |
Material cylinder head: |
Aluminum alloy |
Material cylinder block: |
Cast iron |
Type cylinder block: |
7-rib |
Diameter piston pins: |
20 mm. |
Diameter big-ends: |
42 mm. |
Throttle plate diameter: |
55 mm. |
Fuel system: |
EFI (D-jettronic) |
Injector capacity: |
182 cc/min. (2 Ohm, topfeed) |
Fuel pump pressure: |
75 psi. |
Fuel rail pressure: |
35 tot 38 psi. |
EFI sensor: |
AFM (Air Flow Meter) / MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) |
Ignition: |
Electronic (ESA/TCCS) |
Sparkplugs type: |
BCPR5EP11 |
Engine dry weight: |
Approximately 135 kg. |
Miscellaneous: |
Big-port cylinder head |
3rd Generation
4A-GE
Somewhere in the late '80's Toyota looked at the cylinder head design
again and made some changes to further improve performance of the 4A-GE
engine.
The biggest changes were made to the intake of the engine. Where the
first two generations of the engine needed the T-VIS system to make
torque at low RPM's, the new head and intake manifold were redesigned
with smaller inlet ports to improve airspeed etc. (hence the name
'Small-port').
Compression was upped a little, larger injectors were used, the
camshafts were altered and oil squirters were added to improve piston
cooling. This was also the last generation that featured the 16 Valve
cylinder head.
Engine code: |
4A-GE |
Fuel: |
Petrol |
Power output: |
+/- 130 hp @ 7000 rpm. |
Torque: |
141 Nm @ 6000 rpm. |
Number of cylinders: |
4 |
Cylinder capacity: |
1587cc |
Bore x stroke: |
81,0 x 77,0 mm. |
Compression ratio: |
10,3:1 |
Number of valves: |
16 |
Camshaft layout: |
DOHC |
Camshaft drive: |
Belt driven |
Camshaft duration: |
232º intake-and-exhaust |
Valve lift: |
7,1 mm. intake-and-exhaust |
Valve angle: |
-45º |
Diameter intake valves: |
29,5 mm. |
Diameter exhaust valves: |
25,5 mm. |
Flow combustion chamberr: |
Cross-flow |
Cylinder head material: |
Aluminum alloy |
Cylinder block material: |
Cast iron |
Cylinder block type: |
7-rib |
Diameter piston pins: |
20 mm. |
Diameter big-ends: |
42 mm. |
Throttle plate diameter: |
55 mm. |
Fuelsystem: |
EFI (D-jettronic) |
Injector capacity: |
235 cc/min. (2 Ohm, topfeed) |
Fuel pump pressure: |
75 psi. |
Fuel rail pressure: |
35 tot 38 psi. |
EFI sensor: |
MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) |
Ignition: |
Electronic (ESA/TCCS) |
Sparkplugs type: |
BKR6EP8 |
Engine dry weight: |
Approximately 135 kg. |
Miscellaneous: |
Small-port cylinder head |
After this 3rd generation Toyota did continue to
further develop the 4A-GE engine, but the changes to those engines were
so big that I gave them their own Tech pages.
These engines are known within Toyota circles as the
Silvertop
and Blacktop.